HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-19-15 Brown Speed Limit Public CommentDate: Oct. 18, 2015
To: Mayor Jeff Krauss and City Commission Members
From: Citizens for a Safer Bozeman and Gallatin County
Re: Agenda Item G3 at the Oct. 19, 2015 Commission Meeting
Dear Commissioners,
We would like you to consider keeping the 50mph speed limit on Frontage Road.
History: In October of last year, “Safer Bozeman” managed to get a temporary speed
reduction on Frontage Rd. between Belgrade and Bozeman. This measure was done to help
keep Bozeman citizens safe and to keep the Valley Center Spur open. Additionally, the
Montana Transportation Commission (who is a separate judicial board within the MDT
responsible for setting speed limits) felt that a lowered speed limit would help to
encourage drivers wanting to go fast to use I-90 and the new Airport Interchange.
Considerations for keeping the 50mph speed limit:
The Montana Transportation Commission asked that the speed be reassessed after traffic
had “normalized” after the opening of the new Airport Interchange. However, the MDT did
the study within weeks after opening the Interchange, and before school traffic had
resumed or high-speed gravel truck traffic had been rerouted onto Alaska Rd.
In the study, the expected “Speed Creep” noted in the Federal Highway Administration
Handbook that happens in subsequent speed studies does indeed show vehicles traveling 1
to 5 mph over the speed limit. We believe after checking with law enforcement, that the
tendency for vehicles to exceed the speed limit by a few miles an hour would occur no
matter what the speed limit was set. However, local observations of drivers and home
owners along Frontage Rd. note that traffic has once again been traveling mostly at 50mph
on the East end of Frontage Road now that local fall and school traffic has normalized.
The Federal Highway Administration also mandates that other considerations should be
taken into account when setting a speed limit besides using the 85th percentile of what
speed vehicles currently travel at. Consideration can be given to lower a speed limit
because of narrow roads, no shoulders, multiple intersecting driveways and roads, and
crash history.
On the East end of Frontage Road (Coulee Drive to 7th street in Bozeman) there are a total
of 384 residents, multiple businesses, a park, bus routes, one church and the new MDT
facility that enter Frontage Road as the only existing path of finding their way to Bozeman.
In addition thousands of people use Frontage Road as an access from Springhill and/or
Valley Center.
It is well known that dangerous right angle and rear-end crashes usually occur at
intersections. This could happen at any of the 31 streets and driveways as they intersect
Frontage Rd. from Coulee Drive to 7th Street —a little over a 3.5 mile stretch. The
notorious line of sight problem at Valley Center also adds it’s own unique problems.
Missing from the current speed study is information on the actual number of crash injuries
that were reduced during the Interim 50mph period. Why is this important? There is a
strong relationship between the speed of vehicles involved in a crash and severity of injury
or death. Even small increases in speed can have a drastic effect. For instance, an increase
of speed from 50mph to 55mph in a crash can increase the chances of death by 58%. We
have attached a chart documenting this from a well-known and nationally accepted
authority.
With the Montana Highway Patrols assistance we were able to obtain and analyze injury
data originally supplied to the MDT from the MHP on 4 major intersections on the East End
of Frontage Rd. The results are stunning and shown in the chart below:
Reduction of injuries at intersections after speed limit lowered.
Intersection with
Frontage Road S-205
60mph
9 months
11/1/13 to 7/31/14
50mph
9 month study period
one year later
11/1/14 to 7/31/15
Springhill Rd. 1 minor injury
0
Valley Center Spur 1 major injury
1 fatality
2 minor injuries
Sacajawea Peak Dr. 1 major injury
0
Coulee Dr. 1 minor injury
1 major injury
0
Major injuries are those injuries requiring transport to the hospital. Minor injuries were
treated at the scene and released. Data was provided by the Montana Highway Patrol
on 10/16/15 for intersections in the populated areas on the East end of Frontage Rd.
50mph has made a good difference to the Safety of Bozeman Citizens.
It is rare for anyone to be able to claim to have saved a life. But we firmly believe that the
action of the Transportation Commission last year did just that. We would like you to join
us in saving more lives and reducing catastrophic injury at these intersections by asking
the Transportation Commission and MDT to keep or even lower the 50mph on the East end
of Frontage Road from Coulee Drive eastward to the 45mph start of the 7th street.
Thank you,
Marilee Brown, Director
Citizens for a Safer Bozeman (631 members)
406-579-5447
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